Saturday, July 12, 2014

The 6 Davises Storm the Caribbean

Cruise 2006

As remembered by Chris

Day of Embarkation

This is a cruise my parents took my
family on during the summer of 2006.
They had gone on the same cruise with my dad’s company, and they liked
it so much, they wanted to treat all of us.
We were happy to indulge. This
was interesting as Davis family vacations go as this is the only I can remember
where we did not get into some prolonged fight or argument. I am writing this 9 years after the fact, but
I will try to recall the best I can some of the more important events. Luckily, I have over 1100 pictures that we
took to look through to help me reconstruct the events.

Kellie and I had only been married
a few months at this point as we had been married in March 2006. This was our second vacation together; the
first being our honeymoon. We left our
apartment in Norman, OK and drove down to Arp to spend the night with Kellie’s
parents. We took our beagle Abbey for
them to keep. She was just a young puppy
at the time, and I think they had a good time watching her. We woke up, and ate a big breakfast and began
our trek to Houston. Our family had
decided to all stay at an Embassy Suites in Houston the night before the
cruise. Since they were coming from
Lubbock, we easily made it before them.
I decided to drive down to Galveston and check out the cruise terminal a
day early just to get the lay of the land.
After that, we drove back to Houston and met my family for supper. The next morning we woke up and had a big
breakfast at the hotel restaurant, then we loaded up and headed to our ship.

The Carnival Conquest

When we arrived at the cruise
terminal, we dropped off Mom, D’Ann, and John with the luggage, while Dad,
Kellie and I parked the cars. On the
shuttle ride back, the driver said most people gain 1 lb a day while on a
cruise to which my dad replied with his now famous words, “We Davises are
overachievers, we are going to gain 2lbs a day!”. We got back to the terminal where we went
through customs and then waited on the gangway for about an hour to board the
ship. Our rooms weren't ready yet so we immediately went to the Lido deck on deck 12 to get hamburgers, pizza, and
other fare while waiting for the rooms.
The pizza was okay, but the burgers were very good

Kellie sitting on our balcony

Around 3:00 we entered our rooms on
the 6th deck, known as the “upper” deck. Mom and dad, stayed in a room next to John
and D’Ann’s, while Kellie and I stayed a few doors down. My parents were generous enough to spring for
balconies for all of us. We spent the
next hour sitting on our balcony and watching all the sights. I noticed a HUGE flock of birds forming not
far away, and I wondered what moron was attracting them. I looked out my balcony to see my family
members were tossing Cheetos at them attracting dozens of them. Before sailing away, we had to go to a muster
drill. We put our life vest on and
waited. Apparently we waited too long as
they had to come and get us out of our room and bring us to the muster station. We were some of the last to arrive

Kellie and I getting ready for our muster meeting

We were now cleared to leave the Galveston;
we hung out on our balcony for a while and watched as land floated away. We were escorted out of the harbor by dolphins
and flying fish swimming alongside the ship.
What a wonderful spectacle it was to see. Sailing out of Galveston was unique as we saw
dozens of oil tankers waiting off the shore, apparently they would wait there
until the price of oil increased, and then they would bring their oil in. We opted for the early seating in the Renoir
dining room which was located in the aft of the ship. Our first table was a large round table which
we shared with a family of three. It was
at the very back, and right over the engines.
The vibration generated an incredible amount of shaking, so this was our
last night to eat at this table, the next night they moved us to a table for
six for the rest of the week located more forward in the restaurant. Our new waiter was named James; he was from
the Turks and Caicos, and he was very good.
The food in the main dining room was very good. John, my dad, and I each ordered two entrees
every night. They also hit the desserts
hard, while I usually opted for a collection for cheeses as my desserts. I don’t remember everything that I ordered,
but I do remember some of things that I had that were very good: Prime Rib, Beef Wellington, a chicken with a foie gras sauce (was amazingly good), escargot, and lots of steak.

That night we all went to the Welcome aboard
show, it was probably the most entertaining show of the whole cruise. We ordered virgin strawberry daiquiris. They had many of the ships executives and we
were introduced to the cruise director.
Afterword, we did what Davises do best; we went to the casino and
gambled. This was Kellie’s first ever experience
gambling and I think she liked it.
Kellie and I played just a few slots; we probably didn't spend more than
20 minutes combined gambling for the whole cruise. When we had our fill we made our way back to
our cabin and balcony, while my dad won a $400 bingo jackpot. Another unique aspect of sailing out of
Galveston is that at night you can see the lights of hundreds of offshore oil
rigs as you sail by.

Day 2

The next day was a day at sea; we
woke up early and headed to the buffet for breakfast. We saw my mom there, but the others were
nowhere to be found, this would become a recurring theme for breakfast on the
ship. John and D’Ann slept in on the sea
days. The omelets were delicious and
worth the wait. Around 10 we met my
mom in the lobby for sports trivia. We decided to check out some of the perks
of the ship. We swam in the pools,
relaxed in the hot tubs, and even found our way to the giant water slide. Dad mostly spent his time in the casino
during the first and second days. All
the family met at Restaurant Cezanne (buffet) for lunch. This would become standard for us during the
cruise. The theme of the buffet that day
was American, and we ate ourselves silly.
At 2:30, Kellie, mom and I met at the piano bar for name that tune. We lounged on our balcony for awhile and then
Kellie and I got suited up to go take some pictures. It was formal night so I wore a nice
suit. At 5:45 we met the others in the
Monet Dining room for fine dining.
Afterword, we attended the production Formidable, it was a Las Vegas
style dance show. It was okay;
unfortunately it wouldn't get better after that night.

The ship is bustling with activity

Day 3

This was the second sea day and I
actually got up this morning to do a little jogging on the outdoor track. I ended up jogging 1.1 miles, and it included
breathtaking scenery of the ocean. By
the end of my jog, the boat was noticeably swaying, which would plague us all
day long. We did our early morning
buffet and omelets with mom. Dad was not
there, but was easily found him in the casino.
Mom decided to try her luck at the penny slots. Kellie and I toured around the ship and
listened to some classical music. D’Ann
worked out at the ship’s fitness center for a while, which is surprisingly
nice. John spent most of his time on the
Lido deck eating ice cream and hamburgers.
We later found out he averaged about 6 ice cream cones a day for the
entire cruise. The buffet was busy as
usual and the theme of the day was Indian food.
Needless to say, I went and got hamburgers and pizzas for Kellie and
I.

John enjoying a hamburger

At noon, John and Dad entered into a
slot tournament. I had not planned on
it, but after their group went, I joined the next group. None of us won the tournament. At 2:30 we went and watched the “Deal or no
Deal” bingo game, but did not participate.
I am not a lay in the sun type of person, but I joined Kellie and mom on
the main deck for a while to listen to a Caribbean band and soak up some
sun. At 3:45 we participated in TV
theme trivia, to which mom was the only one who knew every single one of the
answers. Our after dinner was Ron Joseph,
and his Motown and R&B music. He was
upbeat, but that is the best I can say for him.
The biggest event of the night was dad winning a $1000 jackpot on a
wheel of fortune machine. He drew a large crowd as his machine spun threw his
winnings. From his winnings, dad gave each
of us $100, along with the casino hostess.
He only kept $100 for himself and gave the rest to mom. Kellie and I were now $200 richer, so we
decided to go back to the room.

Day 4

My beautiful wife backed by the Jamaican landscape

Kellie showing off her musical talents

Today we made port at Montego Bay,
Jamaica. Jamaica was mountainous and
full of lush vegetation. It was also
noticeably poor. Kellie and I had looked
up and decided upon shore excursions before we ever went on the cruise. My parents were gracious enough to pay for
everybody’s shore excursions. Although
we all said that we didn’t have to shore excursions as a family, everyone liked
our choices enough they ended doing the ones we chose. For Jamaica, we chose jungle river
cruising. We docked at Jamaica early in
the morning and were greeted by a calypso band.
Little did we know this band would play for hours on end. Kellie even took some time to play along with
them. We took a 45 minute bus ride to
the Grand River and began our great adventure down the jungle. Our guide was young and energetic, and gave
us a little bit of history as we cruised.
At one point he gave us the opportunity to jump in; D’Ann and I were the
only ones from our group to take advantage of this. The water was “refreshing” as the locals
called it. We finished our tour and
caught a bus back to Montego Bay. We
perused the small shopping area they had set up and took some pictures before
boarding the boat for lunch. John,
D’Ann, and Dad all bought Cuban cigars.
The theme of the buffet was French, not too shabby for a buffet. The main show that night was a magician by
the name of Deja. She was downright
pathetic and took smoke breaks in between tricks. We had great fun mocking her for the rest of
the trip.

I jumped into the river, for a "refreshing" swim

Day 5

Today, we made port at Grand
Cayman. Because of the shallow waters,
we had to lower anchor offshore and take a tender into Georgetown. Tendering is definitely not the preferred
method of debarkation. In sharp contrast
to Jamaica, Grand Cayman is wealthy.
Visitors are greeted with a Rolls Royce dealership as they step off the
boat; this is followed by many other expensive shops. For this port we chose to visit the stingray
sandbar. This is popular destination in
the Cayman islands is a sandbar where stingrays gather to be fed by
humans. It did not disappoint. We took a 30 minute boat ride out to the
sandbar, all the while, our guide gave us a demonstration on how to properly
walk among, feed, and even

Kellie and I caught a stingray

catch these stingrays in the wild. We were a little leery of these creatures
since they still had their stingers on them.
After our cruise, Steve Irwin, the legendary crocodile hunter, a man who
had battled crocodiles, snakes, and countless other dangerous beasts was killed
by a stingray. If this had happened
before the cruise, I don’t think I could have convinced Kellie to go out among
the stingrays. We fed the squid to the
stingrays and I was even able to catch an extremely large one. We all had a great
time except for mom who is uncomfortable in water and did not like the way the
waves pushed her around.

D'Ann, John, and Kellie on the way back from the Stingrays

Before
returning to the Conquest, Kellie and I walked around Grand Cayman for a bit,
looking at all the different banks and high-end boutiques. We got our usual souvenirs which included a
coffee mug, a snow globe, a magnet, and t-shirts. Strangely enough, we had no problems finding
snow globes in any Caribbean port. The
theme of the buffet this day was Caribbean, I did not like the jerk chicken as
much this time around, but found a taste for it later in life. This was the second formal night of the
cruise, so Kellie and I dressed nicely and took some more pictures. We would end up purchasing quite a few photos
from the photo gallery. My mom paid for
these photos, for which we greatly appreciate, and some still adorn the
hallways in our house. D’Ann did not
join us this night, and decided to dine at the sushi bar instead. The main show that night was called “Point
and Click”, it was a musical about two people of different socio-economic
statuses meet and fall in love online.
It was infinitely disappointing.
Kellie tried the room service this night and found their BLT’s to be
quite tasty. This became a nightly
ritual from here on out.

Day 6

Kellie and I at Playa del Carmen

Today we made port at Cozumel,
Mexico. We opted to swim with the
dolphins, so we actually had to take a large catamaran style tender to the
mainland at Playa del Carmen. We then
took a bus to a resort where we given a brief orientation and then were allowed
to swim with the dolphins. It was an
amazing girth”.
They had to call in a back-up dolphin to give him a ride. Mom who is uncomfortable with deep water and
swimming, chose not to ride the dolphin, but did get into a splash fight with
him. After our dolphin encounter, we
sampled some local cuisine at a nearby restaurant. I think I will stick with good-ole Tex-Mex. We visited some of the other sea creatures at
the resorts including several manatees.
We traveled back to Playa del Carmen to wait for our tender. Kellie went shopping while D’Ann went to a
local bar to cheer on the Mexican national team who was currently playing in
the World Cup. We decided to skip the
main show that night as we had not much luck with them, instead, we ordered an
in-cabin movie “The Pink Panther” starring Steve Martin. We all gathered in mom and dad’s room, John
supplied us with cookies. John later
went to the adult comedy show and said it was "okay"!

Kellie loved the dolphins!

experience that I will never forget, the dolphins are so smooth and
graceful in the water. They were
well-trained and showed a number of their tricks. Everything went well until it was my dad’s
turn to ride. I don’t think the dolphin
was accustomed to a man of his umm…. “

Mom and Dad on the way back to the boat

Day 7

This was our final sea day, and we
used this time to rest and relax. We ate
at the chocolate buffet for lunch. We
all were astonished to see John arrive at our table with 32 chocolate
milkshakes he had gotten for himself. To
his credit, they were in very small glasses (Like smaller than a shot glass).
Next provided the only controversial moment of the cruise as D’Ann took
one of John’s cookies he had collected.
This was pretty good for as Davis vacations go. The chefs on the boat were true artists with
both the taste and the appearance of the food.
Some of their displays during both the chocolate extravaganza and the food gala were spectacular. Kellie and I
listened to some of the musicians on the ship and at 2:30 we entered the mega
bingo game to win a free cruise. We were
one space away from winning for four separate numbers, when someone else called
bingo! Again, we did not go to any shows
this night. My family spent their time
in the casino while Kellie and I hung out at the back of the boat eating pizza
and ice cream before getting into the hot tubs.

Debarkation Day

This morning, we chose to eat at
the main dining room for breakfast. It
was incredible, and we wished we had eaten there every day of the cruise. We vowed not to make the same mistake on our
next cruise (7 years later). We left our
rooms before our deck was called only to find an incredibly long line waiting
for us. After finding our luggage, we
hit the road bound for Arp to retrieve Abbey and tale our many tales.

It was an incredible cruise and we owe all the thanks to my mom and dad for taking us on this amazing Caribbean adventure! I hope we can do it again soon!

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We are SO Blessed

The Mr. and Mrs.

Natalie Grace and David Luke

About Me

I am a Christian wife, mother, teacher, home-maker, chef, driver, baker and so much more. I love to travel and see the world as well as spend time with family and friends. I am married to the most amazing man, Chris and we have two children, Natalie and Luke. God has truly blessed me and I hope to share these blessings through this blog! God is good... ALL the time!